Wasps may have earned a bad reputation, but besides their occasional aggression, these insects have an important role to play in our island's ecosystem and by hunting insects such as caterpillars and greenflies they are actually a gardener's friend.
Like most social insects, a colony of the common wasp starts out from a single queen who raises several hundred female workers over the summer months. These workers tirelessly collect chewed wood to construct a large nest, sometimes in a roof space or loft but more often located underground inside an earth bank. If a wasp's nest is disturbed, they will defend it by stinging any intruders that get too close.
Life cycle:
- The life cycle starts in the early spring when the hibernating queen wakes up and builds a small nest, not much bigger than a golf ball. These can be found inside a shed in April/May. The first workers from this nest quickly take over the duties of nest building and hunting prey, feeding protein to the wasp grubs that are developing in layers of combs inside the nest. By the end of June, the colony nearly always relocates somewhere safe nearby where they construct the main nest. These nests continue to grow until the autumn months when the queen decides the time is right to raise male wasps (or drones) and virgin queens. Once these new queens have mated, they find a dry place to hibernate, and the colony rapidly dies out. The cycle starts all over again the following spring, but the old nests are abandoned and never used again.
How do wasps help us?
- Wasps play a crucial role as natural pest controllers, hunting and eating pests like flies, caterpillars and aphids that damage crops. As they visit flowers for nectar they also act as pollinators, increasing food production especially from plants like figs. In speeding up decomposition and serving as food for other animals, wasps support biodiversity and are vital for a healthy environment. Without them, insect pest populations would explode, and many plants would struggle to reproduce.
Why they can seem annoying (and why they are misunderstood):
- In the summer adult wasps feed insects and meat protein to the growing larvae in the nest. In return, the larvae secrete a sweet, sugary liquid that the adult workers consume for energy. Wasps also seek out sugar from nectar producing flowers like ivy as fuel for flight. By autumn, the queen stops producing larvae, so there's no more sweet secretion. The workers' main job ends, and they need to find sugar directly for themselves which is why they are attracted to sweet drinks. They also seek out ripe and fermenting fruit which can make them unpredictable and bolder. When the whole colony is ending, it can make workers desperate and more defensive as they try to survive. We shouldn't be afraid of wasps but learn to appreciate what they do for us and respect them by following simple rules. If a wasp lands on you, don't flap at it or try to brush it off, just stay still and let it fly off in its own time. If you come across a nest, move slowly and gently out of the area. Avoid getting closer than 3m to a wasp's nest, in this way they will not need to actively defend their nest
Wasp Pictures
- A Queen wasp
- A wasp's nest
- Wasps and a queen near their newly built nest
